Creighton Appeals Decision Favoring Deaf Medical Student

Posted 9 months ago

By Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Creighton University is appealing a federal judge’s ruling requiring it to provide a deaf student with special equipment and interpreters to allow him to finish his last two years of medical school.

The judge ruled in December that Creighton University’s medical school must accommodate Michael Argenyi’s (ar-GEN’-ee) disability. Last month, the judge ordered the Omaha university to pay nearly $500,000 in Argenyi’s legal fees.

Argenyi was accepted to Creighton’s medical school in 2008 after disclosing that he was hearing-impaired and requesting accommodations for his disability to allow him to follow lectures and communicate with patients.

He sued in 2009, after leaving the school when the university refused his requests for interpreters — even though he offered to pay for the interpreters himself.